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Mr. Moredock, ALL government is based upon secrecy and cynicism. How 'bout that, sports fans? Even the wisdom of our Founding Fathers could not protect us forever. We are already run by a cadre of privileged Government elites. Think it's bad now? Just wait 'til your progressive Marxists take over.

Mr. Moredock, supporters are a rare gift and welcome. Yet I would not be so hard on the detractors and critics. Their comments at best stimulate dialogue. They also draw needed attention to your columns. And at the very worst they provide classic textbook cases of the very issues you wish to showcase in your columns. Never forget that whoever opens his mouth in untoward criticism ultimately points the biggest finger right back at himself. I am confident that you will find another noble literary outlet for your gifts.

Having said that, Pushtu or Pashtun is Indo-Iranian, whereas Arabic is Semitic. Arabic has lent only its religious terminology to Afghanistan, but its language is alien. A knowledgeable speaker of Farsi informs me that Pushtu is rather like an archaic (maybe 16th Century) version of Farsi. Therefore, learning Arabic in preparation for Afghanistan is like learning Middle French in preparation for a sabbatical in modern London (gor blimey!).

Assuming that the Arabic alphabet prepares one for Pushtu is like assuming that learning the Roman alphabet prepares an English speaker for Hungarian or Turkish. For God's sake, before you get on the plane, Ms. Travis, do the math!

I have argued more than once in this column for the separation of Church and State, because a State Religion is desirable only as long as YOUR brand of religion is in the majority. Evidence the witch trial hysteria of the 17th Century and the bitter Thirty Years’ War in Europe, when religion was politics and politics religion.

But religion is not God. It is difficult to respect the “atheist.” In the atheist I perceive what must be either the blindest arrogance or abject intellectual dishonesty. The “atheist” behind a sneering mask scornfully denounces divinity, and in doing so, smugly boasts from the rooftops: (1) My senses are perfect, and I can see no evidence of God; (2) My brain is perfect in reason and can deduce no evidence of God; (3) My human experience is complete, and I have not experienced a God. “My senses, reason and experience in combination are infallible, therefore I conclude God cannot exist.”

But human senses are demonstrably skewed and imperfect, human brains are finite and biased, and human experience is finite and fragmented. And there are no atheists in foxholes, when the chips are down. The agnostic has in fact a secret god, and that god is PROOF. Nevertheless, I respect the agnostic, who declares at least that s/he is not certain, but leaves allowance for perennial human error.

The fool has said in his heart that there is no God. By far the most fools who would denounce “God” are in fact denouncing the Church, ofttimes more an artifact of Man than of God. But aside from arrogance or dishonesty, there are impure motives one might ascribe to the “atheist.” Was it not Oscar Wilde who said: “When a man rails against the Church it is usually because the Church will not let him do as he wishes?”

You are SOOOOO right, Mr. Moredock. Reduce Mr. Obama’s issues to the red herring of race all you want. I do experience a great deal of fear regarding the choice of Senator Obama. Mr. Obama constitutes the most socialistic candidate in American history. I fear he will lead us down the primrose path into the Inferno of socialism, where the US will fall among the rusted gutted hulks of Communism and other failed utopias. Socialism, with its hypertrophied superstructure of absolute government controls, is perilous. A great many prophets of literature have foreseen such dim socialist utopias as Brave New World, 1984, and Fahrenheit 451, where absolute government control goes very sour very fast.

I lived in Europe for years. There I experienced socialism first hand, its benign neglect, its inefficiency, and its narrow programmed choices, with health and social coverage comprehensive–however-inadequate. There are no outliers, no special cases; it rakes all under the same comb. Governments cut off your nose to spite your own face. This is why I fear it. The current US financial crisis is Mr. Bush’s fault? HA! Here years ago arch-liberal presidents and their administrations put banks under the gun to issue mortgages to poor credit risks (fairness!), and in some Washington star chamber filled with cigar smoke I can hear a stealthy cadre of insider Democrat socialists cackling: “And if Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac eventually implode, no problem: the Government can step in, bail out the banks, and there’s our first cherished milestone toward nationalization of banks and the ultimate seizure of private property!” A programmed catastrophe and the thin end of the mighty wedge!

The so-called tax cuts B.O. favors amount to nothing more than a pathetic euphemism for facilitated welfare checks. But America is already in the hole. For every meager welfare check our government issues, all of us will pay dearly, as taxes rise and rise beyond all expectations. If your man succeeds in his promise as Robin Hood robbing the rich to feed the poor, there goes free enterprise. Who creates jobs, after all? It is the entrepreneur who sacrifices and works fourteen hours a day or more, and by the sweat of his brow founds durable companies, not the larded deadbeat who haunts welfare lines.

Sorry, Mr. Moredock, but I would rather have a McCain job than Obama welfare.